US energy investment favours natural gas drillers.

Bloomberg: “Energy accounted for almost two-thirds of the $8 billion of inflows into sector-based exchange-traded funds this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the absence of federal mandates for renewables such as wind and solar, much of that money is going into funds that invest in natural gas drillers.”“The fuel that produces less pollution than coal and oil is the most obvious beneficiary of global warming, which a White House advisory panel said on May 6 is already blighting the U.S. with coastal flooding, heavier rainstorms and more intense wildfires. The potential for hotter summers and colder winters will raise energy demand, and that suggests higher gas prices.
….Climate change is proving to be a boon for energy investment. On the day the National Climate Assessment report was issued, the 44-company Standard & Poor’s Energy Index reached a record, and $322 million of cash flowed into exchange-traded funds that specialize in energy.
As of yesterday, $5 billion had flowed into energy ETFs this year, 17 times more than in the final quarter of 2013. Energy took 63 percent of the net flow into all sector EFTs.
….The expectation for worsening weather is just one more reason to invest in gas. Gas producers already were buoyed by forecasts that Europe will turn to the U.S. for supplies as Russia, stokes military tension with Ukraine, said Donald Coxe, who advises on $190 million at Coxe Advisors LLP in Chicago. Russia is Europe’s biggest supplier, and most of those supplies flow through pipelines in Ukraine.”